Gay Writes at Dear Author

Today is National Coming Out Day, and here at Dear Author, we’re going to be celebrating NCOD all week with our own “Gay Writes” campaign.

One of the reasons NCOD was established in 1988 is because the single most important thing most GLBT people can do to advance GLBT rights is to come out, whether to coworkers, family, friends, or the person behind them in the grocery store. Because the thing that changes people’s minds about gay rights above anything else is knowing someone who is GLBT.

The end of DADT (very near and dear to my heart) and of DOMA, the adoption of ENDA, and marriage equality are all huge issues at the moment in the US. We’re so close to equality in so many areas, and yet, kids are killing themselves because of the anti-gay rhetoric they hear every day from their classmates and parents, in their schools and churches. Dan Savage started the It Gets Better Project, a YouTube video channel where people can post their own video talking to these GLBT youth, telling them that no matter how bad things feel in high school (or even in middle school), that it will get better and they should stick it out. Dan’s own video with his wonderful husband Terry has been viewed more than half a million times. People like Tim Gunn (from Project Runway) and Chris Colfer (from Glee) and Kate Bornstein (amazing cultural critic) have posted their own videos. But so have the NYC Gay Men’s Chorus, the Broadway company of Chicago, the cast of Wicked, and these guys (best video of the whole project, IMO). But so have hundreds and hundreds of ordinary people, each telling their own story about being bullied when they were younger and how it was worth living through it so they could experience life in all its glory.

So, with these things in mind, we are Dear Author thought it was important to celebrate GLBT romance. Because it doesn’t get much better than living through the worst things life can throw at you and finding your happy ending with your perfect partner (as I say in my own IGBP video).

So, ten days ago I put a (very informal) call out to authors and publishers of GLBT romances (mostly over Twitter and in emails to my contacts at various presses) for giveaways for our Dear Author NCOD celebration, and to our reviewers for reviews of GLBT romances. And the response was so huge (especially considering its very informal nature), we’ve had to make it a National Coming Out WEEK celebration. We’ve got more than 125 books to give away and six reviews of GLBT romance novels.

All week, we’ll run reviews and each review will have its own personal giveaway that will remain open for 24 hours. You’ll need to comment on the review to win. But that doesn’t begin to cover all the books we have to give away. So comment on THIS post any time before Friday, 11:59 PST, and you’ll be entered to win one (or more, depending on whether they’re bundled) of our giveaway prizes, most of which are GLBT romances. Comment with the top 5 prizes you’d be interested in winning and you’ll make my life a lot easier. Otherwise, if you win, you’ll get a random drawing of the prizes. You might get that anyway, but you’re more likely to get something you want if you tell me what it is!

And now, our prizes: (Print books can only go to US recipients. One win per person for the week of our Gay Writes giveaways, but feel free to comment on all posts to increase your chances of winning! Comment by Saturday 11:59 pm PST for a chance of winning.)

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Sarah F. is a literary critic, a college professor, and an avid reader of romance -- and is thrilled that these are no longer mutually exclusive. Her academic specialization is Romantic-era British women novelists, especially Jane Austen, but she is contributing to the exciting re-visioning of academic criticism of popular romance fiction. Sarah is a contributor to the academic blog about romance, Teach Me Tonight, the winner of the 2008-2009 RWA Academic Research Grant, and the founder and President of the International Association of the Study of Popular Romance (IASPR). Sarah mainly reviews BDSM romance and gay male romance and hopes to be able to beat her TBR pile into submission when she has time to think. Sarah teaches at Fayetteville State University, NC.

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